Why a desk is a dangerous place from which to view Welsh sport
Guest post:
Flick Devey
Sport Wales
Back in March 2021, I was enrolled on Service Design in Practice with ServiceWorks.
At this point in time, the concept of ‘Service Design’ was a bit of an unknown entity for a Healthcare Professional comfortable practising in the field of Sports Science & Medicine.
But with the launch of the Sport Wales strategy ‘enabling sport in Wales to thrive’ I was being asked to reimagine my role within Welsh sport. The strategy comprises the strategic intents of:
‘being person-centred – where the needs of the individual drive the service’ and
‘ensuring everyone has the opportunity to be active through sport - sport is inclusive and provides a great experience for all’.
It appeared that acquiring an understanding of user-centred service design would be a useful addition to my professional toolbox.
Little did I know what was to come…
I was initially unclear on the benefits and key differences of service design approaches, so let me share what I’ve learned along the way...
What are the benefits of Service Design?
Taking on this approach and mindset enables you to:
generate solutions that target the actual problem, rather than what you assume is going on (I, therefore, don’t need to emphasise the amount of effort and resource that can be saved compared to traditional service roll out).
Promote inclusive practice through ensuring the needs of others, who view the world differently, are actively sought out and considered in the design process of a service
Encourages you to test your ideas early with real-life users, learn quickly and improve so that user feedback drives the design process
Genuinely co-create! Team collaborations are implicit as well.
What’s different about this way of working?
The UK Design Council define service design as “all about making the service you deliver useful, usable, effective and desirable”. And that’s something that sounds good for everyone involved in any public service offering, right?
But Service design isn’t just about what you do, it also requires a shift in mindset. A shift towards:
Consistently asking: ‘who are our users and what do they need?’
Being explicit with the assumptions we are making about users’ views.
Seeking evidence and insight to better understand users’ intrinsic motivations and goals.
And then there’s the structured process of discovering, defining, developing and delivering (as per the Design Council’s double diamond framework. A reference that was to become our ‘north star’ on this learning journey).
What did we actually do?
Mixed cohort
A multi-agency cohort from organisations working in the diverse sectors of sport, housing, transport and Women’s Aid started out on the virtual, live course with Service Works.
Self-reflection
As with most learning journeys, we began by looking at ourselves. We did an assessment of our personal styles: what was our learning style and mindset. Then, we had virtual coffee meetups to get to know each other and share the insight acquired.
The tools
We were introduced to Mural – an online whiteboard tool, and Basecamp (a project management and team communication platform where the programme files and folders were shared) which were to become invaluable resources.
Listening to understand
We built up an arsenal of coaching questions through pair and group work and observed role play– I was already familiar with coaching basics and had practised motivational interviewing, exploring ambivalence. But as with all skills, these get better with practice and the course catered for all levels. And I also learnt to probe until there was a greater understanding of the ‘why’.
Coaching
The personal coaching sessions with tutors on the course helped to identify our individual needs and support us with work-based challenges. It's one thing learning the theory in a classroom. It's something else taking that learning and applying it to a real-world challenge. The coaching support helped with this transition.
Reading
Reading the supplied textbook “This is Service Design Doing” between the sessions stimulated and reinforced the learning. It provided a particularly useful reference for research and sample methods as well as step by step guides for ways of making sense of the data collected e.g. creating personas or journey maps.
Practical application
Throughout the course, we were set hurdles to test ourselves and apply our new skills.
First, we were rapidly introduced to design methods by designing a better lunch experience for our partner within 90 minutes.
Then, over the space of the next few weeks, we worked on improving the new starter experience in our organisations.
Finally, we were let loose on a work-based challenge of our choice.
These interactive elements of the course allowed us to practice using the tools in a real-life setting and to gain invaluable feedback.
Team-work and influencing
We also covered team effectiveness and influencing key stakeholders, encompassing:
the difference between ‘red work’ (the doing stuff) and ‘blue work’ (the thinking stuff) and how we need to make time for both
running a fast team briefing to ensure buy-in
developing skills in harnessing divergent thinking from a mixed group.
We also practised pitching the key advantages of taking a service design approach to test out skills in influencing. Useful tools in everyday practice and reinforced through tasks set on the course and opportunities to evaluate and reflect.
The outcome
The ServiceWorks course is not for passengers, the tasks within the bootcamps, workshops and homework presented opportunities to practice in a safe space and build confidence with a new tool or approach, and with support encouraged us to push beyond what felt comfortable.
So, it turns out service design isn’t just about acquiring the tools. But it’s also a mindset, a process, a language and a management approach. And after getting an introduction to the basics, it seems to me like we could all do with a lot more of this.
This 6-month course has created observable change in how I approach my work and, whilst I’m just at the stage of taking baby steps with these concepts, I feel committed to experimenting further and influencing the culture of my organisation through incorporating these approaches.
I’ll leave you with one of my favourite lines of the course: if someone needs to put a screw in the wall, a hammer isn't useful (and if you keep giving them a hammer it might put them off DIY for life!).
“So, who are your users, and what do they need?”
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Useful references
Video: Hear about the surprising results from research conducted by Sport Wales/Centre for Digital Public Services project on Community Sport Investment
